Tell Us How You Feel About Stocks

Twitter and its spinoffs have now come to Wall Street. They may be good at spotting trends, and trending sentiment definitely has an impact on the market. But don't confuse cause and effect.

It's not just for checking in with friends and needy movie stars anymore. Twitter and its financially focused satellites have become the digital world's ticker tape.

Twitter (http://twitter.com) spinoffs like StockTwits (http://stocktwits.com), FINIF (www.finif.com) and Stocial (www.stocial.com) have become incubators for stockpickers, and barometers of intraday trends. Okay, much of the tweet stream is market noise, or the usual misdirection from the misguided. Regardless of technology, that's never likely to change.